THe Big issue 12 – 25 APR 2013 35
After yeArs in relAtive obscurity, AustrAliAn composer
sven libAek is finding belAted fAme with A soundtrAck
thAt is An AurAl snApshot of the 1970s.
Sven Libaek iSn’t your average community orchestra member.
the path that led norwegian-born Libaek, now 75, to australia
and to Sydney’s Sutherland Shire Symphony Orchestra
included film appearances, time at the prestigious Juilliard
School in new York, stints as a record producer and tv show
host, and composer credits on just about everything from cult
films to Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
but it’s his contribution to a 1970s australian documentary
tv series that has recently emerged as his best-known and
best-loved work.
Australian underwater filming team Ron and Valerie Taylor
gained international fame with their footage, which has been
used in Hollywood films such as Jaws. but before the famous
great white shark came the pair’s own documentary series:
Inner Space. it was shot in 1973 using $9000 from Channel
9 and a mortgage on the Taylors’ house, and became the first
australian tv show to be sold in its entirety to a US network.
Libaek was composing for australian shows such as Nature
Walkabout (1967) and Boney (1971–72) at the time. neither
party remembers how he came to the attention of the taylors,
but the enthusiasm with which he approached the project
made a lasting impact. Valerie recalls Ron later telling her
that they were lucky to have Libaek working on their show.
Libaek was comfortable with tight budgets and tight
turnarounds. He pulled together a small orchestra – just
woodwinds, a rhythm section and a bit of brass ‘for tension’ –
and the entire soundtrack was recorded in just a handful of
three-hour sessions.
the phrase ‘inner space’ was borrowed from Swiss engineer
and explorer auguste Piccard, and it highlights the peculiar
relationship between underwater and outer space – opposites
in a way, but connected by silence, weightlessness and
mystery. these were some of the words Libaek noted in his
‘word association’ composing process, inspiring the prominent
use of vibraphones, bass flute and wah guitar in the score.
the Inner Space soundtrack is almost as significant for
its players as its composer, doubling as a snapshot of jazz in
Australia in the 1970s. Jazz is an American art form, and a
lot of our country’s output was a reflection of that. For the
Inner Space sessions, Libaek assembled some of the best
jazz musicians in australia, and the result is something
extraordinary and distinctly australian.
it was hard enough to get a pop album released in australia
at the time, let alone a soundtrack of impressionistic jazz,
although its initial release seems less of a minor miracle when
compared to its second life decades later.
in 2004, a copy of Inner Space made its way to director
Wes anderson on the set of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
via australian actor noah taylor. an email soon arrived in
Libaek’s inbox: “We spent a lot of time on set listening to
your score,” wrote music supervisor Randall Poster. “We are
thinking that we might want to license some of it for use in our
film.” It was totally out of the blue for Libaek; the first time
anyone had mentioned his Inner Space score in years.
around the same time, Melbourne-based record collector
James Pianta acquired an original copy from eBay. He hadn’t
heard the record for years, but fell in love with it all over
again. “He has a unique voice,” says Pianta of Libaek’s music.
“You have to wonder where he could have gone if he’d been
based in La in 1966.”
Libaek did eventually move to La in 1977, but he was
probably a decade too late to really make a mark the way
others had. He earned a decent living, but returned to
australia in the early 1990s, where he remained in relative
obscurity, all but unknown to those outside of niche jazz and
soundtrack scenes. in 2006, Pianta decided to reissue the
Inner Space soundtrack. “i just thought, ‘this music isn’t out.
Someone’s got to do it.’”
Libaek first met Pianta shortly after the reissue came out.
the composer was in Melbourne teaching a short course on
film scores, and his lasting memory of that day was the shock
at how young Pianta was. throughout their correspondence,
Libaek had always assumed that the twenty-something Pianta
was an older fan of the original series.
“Who are these people buying my music?” asked a stunned
Libaek. after decades of relative anonymity, he was uncertain
there was demand for his music.
Happily, he was proved wrong: the entire run of that first
reissue has sold out, and what was meant to be just a one-off
project for Pianta grew into a label, Votary Records. He’s now
reissued many albums (including others by Libaek), and has
recently reissued Inner Space again, and also produced the
first DVD release of the series.
“i stuck to my original sound, so it’s very pleasing to see it
come around again,” Libaek says of the new attention. He now
receives fan letters and royalty cheques from places as far as
Slovenia and afghanistan.
He no longer teaches, but after the resurgence of Inner Space
Libaek now has some new advice for musicians just starting out,
or younger community orchestra members: just keep pouring
it out. “Fifty years from now, you never know: it might all of a
sudden come back and make your retirement easier.”
by Matt Hickey
» the inner Space soundtrack and DVD, as well as other
Sven Libaek reissues, can be found at votarydisk.com.
space resurfacing
THeBigissue 7–20JuN2013 35